Small Business Employment Continued Recovery in December

Compensation, Hours Worked Showed Slight Declines

January 07, 2014 08:35 AM Eastern Standard Time

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. small business employment grew in December, though compensation and
hours worked for hourly employees declined. Small business employers
added 20,000 jobs in December, for a cumulative total of more than
555,000 jobs since March 2010. Overall, small business revenues declined
0.19 percent in November.

“After no progress from May through October, small business employment
has now resumed its slow rise for the second month in a row,” said Susan
Woodward, the economist who works with Intuit to create the indexes.
“For December, the growth rate is about one-tenth of 1 percent, for an
annualized rate of just over 1 percent.

“Small business employment continues to recover even more slowly than
overall employment. The recovery for non-farm payroll employment is just
under 6 percent from the trough in February 2010, while the employment
recovery for private payroll, not including government, is a bit over 7
percent. By comparison, small business recovery is only 2.8 percent for
the same period.”

Slight Declines in Hours Worked, Compensation

Hourly employees worked an average of 107.2 hours in December, which is
a 12-minute decrease from November’s figure of 107.4 hours, making for a
24.7-hour work week.

Average monthly pay for small business employees fell to $2,694 in
December, down slightly from $2,695 in November. The equivalent yearly
wages would be about $32,300. This average includes wages that small
business owners pay to themselves.

“The hourly wage for hourly small business employees nudged up five
cents an hour to $15.92 per hour. This is two percent above the average
hourly wage from a year ago, for the hourly employees of Intuit’s online
payroll customers,” said Woodward.

Strong Geographic Small Business Employment Growth

Small business employment showed increases in nearly all of the 38
states tracked by Intuit’s Small Business Employment Index. Only six
states showed employment declines, while two remained flat. Washington
showed the largest employment increase, at 0.3 percent. The largest
decline was in Michigan at 0.18 percent.

By census division, the East North Central region, which includes
Michigan, showed the largest decline at 0.03 percent. The only other
region to see a slight decline was New England at 0.1 percent. The rest
of the country showed employment gains, led by the Pacific division.

State

Change (%)

Alabama

0.07

Arizona

0.02

Arkansas

0.06

California

0.16

Colorado

0.14

Connecticut

-0.02

Florida

0.2

Georgia

0.15

Hawaii

0

Idaho

-0.01

Illinois

0.02

Indiana

0.01

Iowa

0.04

Kansas

0.07

Kentucky

0.11

Louisiana

0.02

Maryland

0.03

Massachusetts

0

Michigan

-0.18

Minnesota

0.2

Mississippi

0.04

Missouri

-0.07

Nevada

0.16

New Jersey

-0.06

New Mexico

0.11

New York

0.13

North Carolina

0.14

Ohio

-0.02

Oklahoma

0.09

Oregon

0.2

Pennsylvania

0.04

South Carolina

0.09

Tennessee

0.07

Texas

0.14

Utah

0.14

Virginia

0.15

Washington

0.3

Wisconsin

-0.01

Small Business Revenues Continue to Decline

The November revenue index showed overall small business revenue
decreased 0.19 percent, on a per-business basis. Per sector, all
industries saw revenue decline except for the construction sector and
the ‘other services’ sector, the latter of which covers non-professional
services.

The real estate services industry showed the largest decline at 0.6
percent. The professional services industry followed, dropping by 0.5
percent. The construction industry showed the larger increase of 0.6
percent, while other services grew 0.2 percent.

This index is based on data from QuickBooks
Online, covering the period from Nov. 1-30.

About The Intuit Small Business Indexes

The Intuit Small Business Indexes provide unique, near real-time
information each month on the activity of the smallest businesses in the
U.S. in terms of revenue, hiring and compensation trends. The Employment
Index is based on anonymized, non-identifiable aggregated data from
approximately 200,000 small business employers, a subset of users that
use Intuit Online Payroll and QuickBooks
Online Payroll. The Revenue Index is based on anonymized,
non-identifiable aggregated data from approximately 150,000 small
businesses, a subset of users that use Intuit’s QuickBooks
Onlinefinancial management offering
and are matched in Dun & Bradstreet’s
small business industry classifications. Together, the indexes provide a
more complete picture of the economic health of the nation’s small
businesses. More information on the Intuit Small Business Indexes is
available at index.intuit.com.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. creates business and
financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for
small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year
2013. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices
in the United States, Canada,
the United Kingdom, India and
other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.